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Previously on Anita Blake Chapter 15.....
May 17- Night
Harry calls Rufus to offer him a job delivering for the occult shop.
Arianna is visited by Cortez, the wolf who won the duel for her company. Darien wakes up to find the police in his condo, conducting the search he gave them permission to do. Darien, Klaus, and Marius receive presents from Volkov in the form of werewolves to attend them for the first part of the night.
Brandy preps for night two of the feast by consuming ginger, as per Volkov's request. She blames this for her warmer than normal temperature when Klaus mentions it. She visits Volkov before the feast begins for the agreed upon feeding, which leaves her slightly dizzy for a moment. Volkov begins plying her with wine for the night.
Sapphyre and Josie receive a gift basket from Volkov. At the feast, Josie makes her rounds, trying to touch Beasts with the wolves from Volkovs pack to see if the hidden Beast was a fluke. The wolves make plans to have coffee after the feast with several of Volkovs wolves.
After a lovely day spending time with Maria, Kat gets ready for the evening and has a rousing discussion on the way down in the elevator about whether The Princess Bride has a porn parody or not and what it should contain.
Astrid arrives at the feast with two of her rats and has a short conversation with Noah about his aura.
Lorne helps keep Maritza and Dietra busy during the day before going to the feast.
Nigel's introduces the second night of the feast. Marius and Malaki sit together at the feast, talking.
Darien played piano multiple times, both solo and with Arianna.
Miguel performs a knife throwing act, playing catch with Volkov's best knife thrower, Lee, with Mr Breeman aka Mr Yeet in the middle.
In a demonstration unlike his performance of the previous evening, Klaus reveals himself to be the Schoolmaster, Archangel's primary punisher. Mr Breeman has his joints drilled and them threaded with hook. He spends the rest of the evening suspended from the ceiling. A crowd of vampires and shifters who wanted a closer look gathered. Katherine climbs between Saphyre's legs to get a better look at Klaus' performance; it takes the place of one of her top ten craziest things she's seen. Nigel keeps her from shifting and Saphyre sees her back to her seat. Noah and his shifters exit before Klaus performance gets too far, because the younger shifters were having difficulty restraining themselves. Lorne leaves, seeking out the lobby, to get as far from the grisly spectacle as possible. During Klaus's performance, Darien realizes he is feeding on the fear coming off Breeman.
Sailor Morgan performs another burlesque.
A Battle Royal follows, featuring five vampires, three wererats, eleven werewolves and the werehyena. After a brutal fight that saw Kowalski's arm and Darien's elbow get dislocate, Waylon, Astrid and Stiles end up facing each other. Stiles literally disembowel's Waylon, who reveals that he feeds on pain, even his own. With Astrid's help, Waylon ejects himself and Stiles, granting Astrid the victory.
An intermission followed.
Brandy talks with Astrid, receiving an offer of letting the leopards possibly getting revenge. Brandy asks Astrids help in finding the person who shot Justin. Josie makes out with Thomas after she offers to feed him. Nigel is able to feed from Kat without a fight.
The intermission is followed by Waylon's secret contribution to the feast; midgets in armour jousting on wererat steeds. Grigori found it uproarious
Saphyre performs again, walking the edge of the cage around the fight area and giving himself cuts while he sings.
Grigori and Deitra take the stage. He demonstrates an incredible ability as a pianist and it is revealed that he has been training Deitra to sing for years. They amaze the crowd. Grigori then presents Leia with adoption papers for Dietra, who is now officially the swan princess.
Nigel reads a letter from the Master of the City, which outlines the treaty with the werewolves and Grigori's barring from the city for 25 years. Grigori does not take the news well, having over indulged due to getting his Pomme drunk, and challenges Nigel to a duel for not warning him, and subjecting all around to his massive fear aura.
Darien and Astrid help Brandy come back from ground zero of Grigori's fear aura. Astrid sees Brandy to her apartment. Kat is escorted out of the feast by Nigel and Maria following Grigori's outburst.
The wolves reconvene at Dani's hotel room to decompress, talk, and finally call Tom with a recap of the night. Tom comes out to the hotel for support and the full story. The wolves get the ok to proceed with the arranged coffee meeting in the cafeteria of the tower. Introductions are made, as well as plans for some of them to meet at a later time for recreational activities. Plans are also made for a mass meetup at Nightshades Wednesday night.
Darien seeks an audience an hour after the feast with Grigori, where it is made known that Darien is in fact Grigoris child. Darien is asked to spy on Noah and attempt to arrange a meeting between Grigori and the local Ulfric. Darien texts with Klaus before dawn about his concerns with possibly being thrown under the bus.
Brandy accidentally tells Klaus about her early experience with rolling and donating.
Lorne gets to meet the Master of the City for the first time, and learns his identity- Waylon Crosby
May 18 morning
Harry- Harry meets Rufus in the cafeteria to talk money. They come to an agreement and Harry sends a basket of baked goods from his mother back to the tower for the shifters to enjoy.
Noahs werebear leaves to go back to Alaska, feeling that it is too dangerous to stay with the vampire.
May 18th night
The police receive a phone call from Mrs Fabershim, Darien's downstairs neighbor after her prized corgi unearths evidence in the maintenance shed of the property. They arrive and do a search of the maintenance shed and grounds before inviting Darien down to the station for questioning
Texts with plans for outings are received by several members of the pack from the visiting wolves. Plans were made for Wednesday for both daytime outings and nighttime trip to Nightshades.
Brandy wakes up feeling ill. She and Klaus are called into Nigel's office where she is reprimanded for overstepping her station. She follows Klaus down to the sub basement where he takes on his roll as schoolmaster, breaking her big toes with a hammer. Klaus then sees her back to her apartment and attempts to convince her to see the medical staff at the tower. Once back in her apartment, she pulls the broken nails from her toes and wraps them as best she can, then calls Morvan with what she talked to Astrid about. Tana fixes Kowalskis shoulder and gets an offer of a drink at Nightshades wednesday night.
Darien wakes up to an invitation to the police station for questioning concerning new evidence. He calls his lawyer on the way, who meets him there. After official questioning was done, he walked to his car with Suki and spoke about the reason he reached out to her to speak with Nick. Grigori and Nigel take a walk by the waterfront to discuss their upcoming duel and get interrupted by paparazzi.
May 19th
Cops-. Suki pays a visit to Archangel to speak with Nigel and interview the visiting vampires about their whereabouts. Before she leaves she receives copies of security footage backing Darien's alibi for the past couple nights.
Saphyre makes arrangements to meet with Darien at his club for a discussion and receives a call from the police while standing outside. He gives his impressions of Darien and comes in to talk. Saphyre discovers that Darien is being framed for murder. He also is asked by Darien to be his Pomme, and to ask his Ulfric to contact Darien about having a meeting with Grigori.
May 20th
Justin brings dinner to Jules from Kyle, along with a letter. He brought home a reply from Jules in the morning.
Lillia talks to Nick about hearing that some of the rats in the rodere thinking that shes the queen. He tells her that he doesnt have a queen and offers her the position. Once she realizes he isn't joking, she accepts and asks Nick on a date.
Dani draws a portrait for Lee to send to his mom, and they go biking. Green, Saphy, and Shale have breakfast together to start the day, and Saphy took Green on a tour of the city's sights, particularly those of the LGBT community. Josie and Ethan go out for sushi. Several wolves and Maria Celes from the Preternatural Squad meet to play paintball. A large collection of local wolves and visitors head to Nightshades for dancing and drinks in the evening. It was obvious that Dani and Lee had been indulging in adult activities prior to the evening. Saphyre does a shot off of Ryans stomach.
Morvan, Minnie, Tana, Leslie and Katie head to Nightshades for a night out so that Tana could make good on her invite from Kowalski. Minnie flirts mercilessly with Morvan the entire night. Adult activities followed upon arrival back at the ranch.
Ramone has a chat with Talbot outside the bar about their experiences and when Grigori shows up hoping to have a meeting with the local wolves Ulfric, Ramone is almost overwhelmed by his unshielded presence. He informs the wolves that he is leaving and calls Tom to warn him not to meet Grigori. Maria stays with Ramone as he tries to recover from his experience with Grigori.
Several of the wolves adjourn to josie's place after the club to finish off the night with games and drinks. Dani and Lee leave early so she can give him a private striptease in her hotel room. Josie and Ethan talk and cuddle after everyone else is gone.
Marius is questioned by Detective Lafeat about the murders.
Klaus, Thomas, Darien, Arianna and Willy play poker and gossip.
Darien arrives at the club just in time for Grigori to finish his phone call with the Ulfric. Darien finds out that 6 of his bloodline have died in the last 5 years. Darien and Grigori play the piano to finish the night and he asks Saphyre to sniff around his property to see if he find anything out of place. Darien shares with Saphyre the revelation he had received that night. Saphyre finds a hint of wererat in the maintenance shed on his property. He gets to meet Dariens house employee and friend, Travarius.
May 21st
The leopards wake up and shower and sit down to breakfast. Kyle receives his reply from Jules and a discussion ensues as to how quick he should reply. Morvan shares what Brandy told her about Astrid with Kyle and Michael. They decide to set up a meeting with the rat queen someplace public. Brandy is taken to the clinic at the tower by Klaus when he finds her feverish and sick in bed.
May 22nd
Leopards- Minnie goes on a date with Robyn where they both are made aware of their non human statuses and are okay with it.
Justin delivers a letter to Jules that includes a date request from Kyle. Brandy goes with Klaus to the duel and asks Darien about Klaus's birthday celebration while waiting for it to begin.
Dani confronts her father and comes to a surprising agreement concerning her work for the company. Then she headed out and put together a gift basket for Talbot and dropped it by the tower. Talbot and Lee receive their mail from Dani.
Saphy Josie and Dani arrive to witness the duel between Grigori and Nigel. Once Stiles kicks the first cat, an uncountable number of them come surging into the arena and lay into the visiting wolves, who exhaust their ammunition quickly. Grigori drops his shields and the wolves struggle to deal with his power. Shale sends an assessment to Tom about the visiting wolves. Dani, Josie and Saphy head to Saphys apartment after the duel to decompress. They talk about Danis talk with her dad and interactions with Lee as well as Saphyres budding relationship with Darien.
Vampires- a large crowd arrive at the tower and settle into sub basement 3 for the duel between Grigori and Nigel, Grigori's wolves and Nigel's cats. As soon as the vampires engaged in the fight, Stiles ignored his Ulfric and kicks one of the cats, starting a chaotic series of events that involve an uncountable number of felines that Kat and Nigel have collected over the week. They come surging into the arena and lay into the visiting wolves, who exhaust their ammunition quickly.
Nigel, injured during the fight, draws on his connection with his human servant to speed his healing. After Nigel scores a hit to Grigori's side, he drops his shields and the wolves in attendance all feel his draw. Nigel suddenly and unexpectedly pulls Grigoris cloak over his head. Grigori draws on his link to Darien to help heal the wound in his side and lashes out in a lucky strike that impales Nigel through the belly.
Kat changes into Satan and attacks Volkov, ending up being held by the throat in a stalemate until Nigel convinces Grigori to accept an apology. The duel is called a draw, and when everyone began filtering out, Darien invited his friends out to his club.
Arianna rides to the club with him and they talk a bit before everyone else arrives. She offers to sing at his club occasionally to use her ability to detect thoughts to see if a human lackey of the one framing him is frequenting his club to keep an eye on him. When everyone else arrives, they discuss Klaus' recent manifestation of the Ardeur and the possibilities of feeding it. They receive a surprise visit from several of noah's shifters and Darien brings them to the VIP lounge where he and his friends had been talking so they all could partake, leaving the shifters down a couple pints, but a bit richer. Thomas offers to drive the shifters home when they discover the last bus has already run. Sebastian Roberts pays Darien a visit to discuss a mutual advertisement agreement, and leaves material to be posted. Afterwards they discuss Darien's future business ideas and his personal problems.
Shale sends an assessment to Tom about the visiting wolves. Dani, Josie and Saphy head to Saphys apartment after the duel to decompress. They talk about Danis talk with her dad and interactions with Lee as well as Saphyres budding relationship with Darien.
Harry gets a visit from his mother who brings him lunch and reminds him that she wants grandkids.
May 23rd
Dani and lee spend the day together apartment hunting, biking, and getting sweaty. Dani does an Australian myth for her camgirl gig that night.
Sebastian visits Woodlawn cemetery and comes across Andrews ghost. After a considerable length of conversation he calls the 1800 number to reach the wolves and does his best to convince them he is telling the truth.
Kyle has a lovely date with Jules at Dimitriou's. The pair enjoyed themselves so much in fact, that they decide to extend the night with a romantic stroll down Union Bay nature trail. They discuss many things, feeling each other out in an attempt to see if a relationship is even possible between them. Unfortunately their night is drawn to an unexpected close when Kyle smells death and they discover a body. The call the police, give statements, and Kyle escorts Jules to his home before heading home himself.
Detective Lafeat visits the morgue to see what he can glean off of the bodies from paradise valley.
Ben and Adalyn take Lillia out for her makeover. First to go was all that hair. Then they had lunch and a visit to the nail salon, followed by handing her over to Saphyre and his friend who owned a small cosmetics business. He talks to her during the makeup lesson, and she realizes the source of most of her problems. A cathartic session of throwing things and screaming, and Lillia emerges a much more confident version of herself. Finally they go shopping for shoes, and Willard pops in, playing babysitters to some subs with money. He pops out to buy lIllia a dress that she wears when they head back to the rodere. When they arrive back at the warren, Lillia is mobbed until Nick parts the sea to come see her himself. She boldly kisses him in front of everyone, leaving quite a few people surprised, then they retire to talk.
May 24th
Dani has lunch with Shale to talk about the strange connection she feels with Lee. Lee drops a care package with Tana to be passed along to Dani.
Brandy visits Tana at work with coffee and snacks and they dish for a bit. Brandy invites Tana for a sleepover. Morvan okays this. Kyle arrives home with donuts to find several of the leopards still up. They chat about Kyle's date and the discovery of yet another body by a leopard, and Kyle makes breakfast for everyone. The subject of Brandy's birthday is brought up and plans are made for a small party at the ranch. Tana stays over that evening and meets Klaus. They discuss her learning some fighting skills with him and watch a movie til Tana falls asleep.
The preternatural team is called in once the police who originally made it to the nature trail hear from Kyle that he smelled a vampire. Suki, Daniel, and Robyn head to the scene to investigate. They call in Klaus in his liaison roll due to Kyles statement. The victim was hung from a tree in classic Hanged Man pose from Tarot, missing its hands and smelling of bleach. Daniel questions Kyle and Jules about how the found the body, shaking Jules hand, each of them getting an impression of otherness from each other. As he is walking them back to the parking lot, Jules pauses to warn Daniel that the crime scene stinks of the demonic, letting slip at that moment that he was more than just a normal human to Kyle. Daniel comes back and tells Suki what Jules told him and they call in a white witch and Father Domenic to help with the scene. Meanwhile Klaus uses a map and a compass to determine that it looks like the victim was placed facing the direction of AAI, possibly making this a challenge to the Master of the City. Klaus give a young tech by the name of Gibbon a rundown of basic vampire information while they are working this out. Back at the scene, it is discovered that the hair appeared to be buzzed close to the head and possibly bleached, and the eyes glued closed. The body appeared to be dressed in hand made clothing stitched specifically so it would stay in place even hung upside down. Klaus assists in cutting the branch the body is hanging from down and makes tracks to get home before the sun comes up. A strand of long black hair is found attached to the rope tied to the tree.
As Klaus is getting in his car, Father sSozio and the white witch, a woman named felicia, arrive in the parking lot. Daniel meets them, and it is made apparent that he knows the white witch quite well. Daniel gives the pair the story so far on the way to the scene. Felicia is able to tell them that the energy surrounding the body is dark voodoo, and did not feel like summoning, more like a strengthening of things already present. While she is working, suki and father domenic talk about demons. Felicia informs them any rituals done to the body were likely performed days ago. After a discussion about what kind of collection of evil they are looking at, it's all hands on deck to get the equipment back to the vans and the body packed up. On the way back to the station, Daniel shares with Suki what he picked up on with the other two bodies.
Robyn and Gibbon begin collecting evidence from the body before the autopsy. It is incredibly gory, so it can be found on this link: http://elmwood-rpg.com/index.php?topic=989.175 (http://elmwood-rpg.com/index.php?topic=989.175) and prefaced by a red warning label.
Daniel and Suki head to the morgue in the evening to try and get a read on the body. Felicia joins them as backup. He has a vision while reading the body, experiencing things from the victims point of view. He discovers that there is another girl, and that they were being held somewhere with a tin roof. He also gets two names- Abby and Lexi. Then Daniel passes out, frightening Suki and Felicia. He was out for nearly a half hour before waking back up. He shares what he found out with them. Once recovered, Daniel opts to head to Nightshades to question Darien about an alibi. Darien gets him a copy of their security footage and Daniel gets to hold Lucy while they wait.
Kat enjoys tea and baked tarts with Lorne and Liam and they discuss the feeling of being with someone that has them as an animal to call and whether or not Liam leaves a skin behind. When she goes to clean the rooms that Volkov's party had occupied, she finds a terrifying mess of blood and calls for help, trying to fight shifting forms.
Darien receives a visit from Daniel to get an alibi for the last few days.
May 27th
Dani heads to Toms business to talk to him about her and Lee, as well as the possibility of her doing portraits to do with his wedding photography. He tells her the place she is planning to live is a bad choice and not shifter friendly, so she heads to their finance office and tells them she changed her mind. She finds a fixer upper through one of the pack realtors. Then she heads to the tower to invite Karina and Michel to a meal to talk about their relationship. Dani later texts with Lee and finds out there has been a change in management in the Volkov pack and Lee is being punished for giving out pack secrets.
Several wolves meet with Sebastian in order to try and connect with the spirit of Andrew, not quite sure if this is a joke or not. They make contact, but not for long and have to reschedule, giving Andrew more time to recuperate.
Darien has a conversation with Travarius about human servants and bodyguards. When he gets to the club he finds several of Noah's
shifters there, and enjoys feeding from Tasi, giving the club a show and putting her up on an increased price on the board. Sebastian showed to check on the state of the requested advertisement and Darien treats him by flirting his way to a free meal for Sebastian, who then checks the bathroom and leaves. Near midnight Darien receives a call requesting he set up a meeting with the rat royalty. Sebastian meets some of the wolves at woodlawn cemetery to try and talk to Andrews ghost.
Daniel catches up with Felicia.
Near midnight, Mike gets a call from Darien, interrupting a makeout session that was heading into uncharted territory. Adalyn takes his phone and heads in search of Nick, who is the person Darien wants to speak with. Her arrival also interrupts intimacy between Nick and Lillia. Nick takes the call, and they discover that there have been three murders and the situation could have dire consequences for both parties. Nick promises to call back about having the requested meeting, but wants to do some investigating himself.
Brandy arrives for her birthday party. They had dinner, and then Tana and Michael set to starting a bonfire and they discuss Brandys IV line and her getting sick, her donating at the feast, and injury. Minnie and Morvan help her partial shift to fix her toes, Morvan keeping her from taking the full shift and feeding her energy, and Minnie talking her through it.
Klaus shows up with gifts, chicks and ducklings, as will as butterscotch schnapps. They set up a playpen for the cheeps and quacks and they have cake, singing happy birthday badly out of tune.. Afterwards the subs enjoy roasting marshmallows and Michael works to be civil even though he is badly against Klaus. They clean up and Minnie offers to take Brandy out for a spa day when she is feeling better. After Brandy and Klaus leave, Minnie and Kat sit by the fire and partake of some puff puff pass, with Michael taking a couple hits and heading to bed. Minnie and Kat catch up and tell each other a bit about their time recently, and kat asks to crawl into bed with Minnie for the night.